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Washington - Congressman Ted W. Lieu (D | Los Angeles County) has introduced a joint resolution in the House (H.J. RES 90) to provide limitations on the transfer of air-to-ground munitions from the United States to Saudi Arabia.

Mr. Lieu’s resolution is the House companion to S. J. Res. 32, which was introduced by Senators Chris Murphy (CT) and Rand Paul (KY) last week. Upon introduction of H.J. RES 90, Mr. Lieu made the following statement:

“The United States needs to send a clear message to Saudi Arabia: the continued civilian casualties in Yemen are completely unacceptable. The Saudis need to do everything in their power to eliminate the risk to innocent civilians in this conflict and until they do the U.S. should not be supporting their military actions there.”

H.J. RES 90 was co-sponsored by Republican Congressman Ted Yoho of Florida. Mr. Yoho issued the following statement upon introduction of the resolution:

“We must make sure that Saudi military action is actually targeting terrorist groups, protecting civilian populations, facilitating humanitarian aid in their military actions in Yemen, and given the recent news regarding the Kingdom’s connections with 9/11 attacks, we must make sure that they are targeting all terrorist groups including al Qaeda. Until Congress has been able to conduct proper oversight and ensured that the use of the air to ground munitions are being used in a manner that is consistent with the United States’ national security strategy we should halt the sale of said munitions.”

H.J. RES 90 SUMMARY

Under H.J. RES 90, President Obama must certify the following:

1. The Government of Saudi Arabia is not providing funding, materiel support, or lethal aid to designated foreign terrorist organizations.

2. The Government of Saudi Arabia and its coalition partners are taking all feasible precautions to reduce the risk of harm to civilians and civilian infrastructure to comply with their obligations under international humanitarian law, in the course of military action undertaken in their self-defense as described in section 4 of the Arms Export Control Act (22 U.S.C. 2754).

3. The Government of Saudi Arabia and its coalition partners are making demonstrable efforts to facilitate both humanitarian assistance and commercial goods, including commercial fuel and commodities not prohibited by UN Security Council Resolution 2216 (2015)

4. The Government of Saudi Arabia is taking all necessary measures to target designated foreign terrorist organizations, including al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula and affiliates of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant as part of its military operations in Yemen.